Trump's Statements To Billy Bush Shouldn't Be The Occasion For A #NotAllMen Campaign

In a 2005 video released Friday by The Washington Post, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump can be heard using vulgar language to speak about kissing and groping women. The footage and audio is disturbing, and is yet another (as if we needed another) example of the way Trump has historically and categorically objectified women. Unfortunately, instead of responding with just disdain and condemnation for Trump, many men on Twitter were using Trump's statements to Billy Bush to say #NotAllMen. The hashtag has been used by "Men's rights activists" as a response to the #YesAllWomen hashtag, which allows women to share stories of misogyny and violence against them. Using #NotAllMen in response to Trump's vulgarity is a form of redirection and gaslighting, and it undermines the very real misogyny and sexism inherent in Trump's statements. Trump's campaign has not responded to Romper's request for comment.

In the video, Trump can be heard saying:

I did try and f*ck her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’

I moved on her like a b*tch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.

I’ve gotta use some tic tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.

It's disturbing, but really not surprising since it came from the man who has called women dogs and pigs and has said that it's "very hard to be a 10" if a woman is flat-chested. That's why it is especially frustrating that anyone on the internet is responding with #NotAllMen, with many saying that "not all men talk about women this way."

Because, as women who experience this language all the time — when we're out late at night with friends, when we're on the street in broad daylight — it seems as though a lot of men speak this way. And if not all men do speak about women in a objectifying and dehumanizing way, then why don't the good men correct or call out the bad men? This Twitter user put it perfectly:

If not all men speak about women that way and the "good men" claim to hate the "bad men," then why do the bad men still exist, and why do they exist with as much power and recognition as Donald Trump? If #NotAllMen truly are like Donald, then men like Donald wouldn't get away with their language for as long as they have been. If #NotAllMen are like Donald and are actually condemned for their language, then how is a man like Donald running for president of the United States?